February 5, 2012

Panetta believes Israel could strike Iran this spring

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(Phatforums News / CNN) --- U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has come to the conclusion there is a growing likelihood Israel could attack Iran sometime this spring in an effort to destroy its suspected nuclear weapons program, according to a senior administration official. The official declined to be identified due to the sensitive nature of the information. Panetta's views were first reported by the Washington Post's David Ignatius, who wrote Panetta "believes there is strong likelihood that Israel will strike Iran in April, May or June - before Iran enters what Israelis described as a 'zone of immunity' to commence building a nuclear bomb." Asked by reporters in Brussels, where Panetta is attending NATO meetings, the defense secretary refused to comment. But Panetta told reporters the U.S. has "indicated our concerns" to Israel, according to a transcript provided by the Defense Department. But the official also noted that Israel goes through cycles of making aggressive statements about its intentions toward Iran in an effort to pressure the United States and the West to take more action. Iran's supreme leader issued a blunt warning Friday that war would be detrimental to the United States - and that Iran is ready to help anyone who confronts "cancerous" Israel. "You see every now and then in this way they say that all options are on the table. That means even the option of war," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said during Friday prayers in Tehran. "This is how they make these threats against us. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned Thursday that Iran may be close to the point "which may render any physical strike as impractical," according to Reuters. But just a few weeks ago, Barak suggested things were not as urgent, saying an Israeli decision on whether to strike Iran's nuclear program was "very far off." A "confluence' of intelligence has led Panetta to this conclusion, the official told CNN, but declined to offer any specifics except noting that the United States conducts intelligence operations aimed at Israel as it does with many other allies. The senior administration official also noted that there is a general understanding in the administration that Israel may have come to the firm conclusion Iran is developing a nuclear weapon. Just last week, the recently retired chief of Israeli military intelligence told CNN's David McKenzie that the "Iranians have already decided that they want nuclear weapons," he said. But he added they haven't decided fully to go through with creating the weapons. The official U.S. assessment is that Iran has not yet made that decision, the source said. At a Senate hearing on Tuesday, Central Intelligence Agency Director David Petraeus, who said he has regular discussions with Israel's leadership and intelligence head, noted that "Israel does see this possibility as an existential threat to their country, and I think that it is very important to keep that perspective in mind." At … [Read more...]

Pigskin Pigout: Super Bowlfuls of Gluttony

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(Phatforums News / ABC News) --- Huddle around the buffet and prepare for America's national pastime. It's first and goal: Guard the dip. Super Bowl Sunday is now the nation's second-biggest "food holiday," trailing only Thanksgiving. Of course, once you factor out the turkey, you find that football fans have turned pizza and chicken wings into holiday dishes, with a bold medley of potato chips, pretzels and Cheez Doodles as the trimmings. Pigskin pigouts explain why America consumes 30 million to 35 million pounds of snack food, double the country's typical daily consumption, on Super Bowl Sunday. The Snack Food Association estimates that on a typical game day, this country's munch madness will include 12 million pounds of potato chips, 9 million pounds of tortilla chips and 4 million pounds of pretzels and popcorn. Potato chip consumption alone might add 27 billion calories and 1.8 billion grams of fat to America's hefty rump, according to the Calorie Control Council, a nonprofit group representing the low-calorie and reduced-fat food and beverage industry. The council estimates the typical armchair quarterback chows down on 1,200 calories and 40 grams of fat. To work that off, it would take two hours and 10 minutes running around a football field. But perhaps it's best not to mention such facts. Perhaps it's easier to just accept that every Super Bowl partier will be penalized in the waistline. Then again, isn't overeating a part of any holiday? This year, dig deep into your super bowlful of munchies, and consider our unofficial holiday's unofficial holiday food -- chips and dip 1. Is There a Chip and Dip Culture? Candy canes, eggnog and marshmallow peeps might not be a dietitian's dream, but we talk ourselves into eating these things because they're considered time-honored holiday treats. Before we reject our Super Bowl snacks for nutritional reasons, let's just remember that they have a history, too, and that history says a lot about who we are. Pretzels are perhaps the most ancient of snack foods. Medieval monks in A.D. 600 came up with this salty, crunchy delight as a reward for students. This explains why traditional pretzels are twisted: to resemble the arms of praying angels. This also explains why other pretzels are shaped like rods: to remind us of the punishment we richly deserve. When European settlers arrived in North America, natives turned the colonists on to the joys of popcorn. The potato chip might be one of the most enduring contributions of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt. The railroad tycoon was dining in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., in 1853 when he sent his potatoes back to the kitchen, complaining they were cut too thickly. An outraged chef furiously cut a fresh order of spuds ridiculously thin, then fried and salted them, and sent them back. Vanderbilt apparently didn't get the joke. The first man to doodle with cheese was 84-year-old Morrie Yohai of Kings Point, N.Y. In the early … [Read more...]

Panetta says Afghanistan role to shift from combat in 2013

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(Phatforums News/ USA Today) --- WASHINGTON – Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Wednesday the coalition in Afghanistan hopes to have shifted its primary mission from combat to advising and training Afghan security forces next year. "Hopefully by the mid- to latter part of 2013 we'll be able to make a transition from a combat role to a training, advise and assist role," Panetta said. The remarks do not signal a change in the coalition mission, which is to transfer security responsibility to Afghan security forces as U.S. troops withdraw. Military commanders have talked about the transition to an advisory role in the past. But Panetta's remarks, made to reporters traveling with him to a NATO meeting in Brussels, appear to provide a rough timeline for achieving the transition. Critics have accused the Obama administration of rushing to the exits, jeopardizing gains that have been made there. Rep. Buck McKeon, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said the shift was "premature." "While there have certainly been improvements in the Afghan security forces' capabilities, the committee has not seen a single assessment by our commanders that indicates they have any confidence in such a swift transition," McKeon, a Republican, said in a statement. U.S. forces in Iraq followed a similar track, shifting from a primarily combat role to one of advising local forces before withdrawing entirely. Under a White House plan, 10,000 U.S. troops were withdrawn from Afghanistan in 2011 and another 23,000 are scheduled to come out by September. Currently, there are 91,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan. The coalition plans to remove most forces by the end of 2014. The shift from a combat mission to an advisory role does not mean that U.S. forces will not be exposed to fighting. Panetta said that U.S. forces would remain "combat ready." The change will likely mean an increase in operations led by Afghan forces as coalition forces increasingly play a supporting role. A Defense Department report last year said the number of partnered and Afghan-led operations had been increasing. The pace of the transition is already well underway in the south, where coalition forces have pushed the Taliban from most parts of Helmand province, a former Taliban stronghold and poppy growing region. "In Helmand province it's moving along quickly," Marine Maj. Gen. John Toolan, commander of coalition forces in southwest Afghanistan, said in a recent interview. "The Afghan security forces are confident." Contributing: The Associated Press … [Read more...]

More winter weather, Punxsutawney Phil predicts

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(Phatforums News / CNN) --- If you were hoping to be done with winter, Punxsutawney Phil had some bad news for you on Thursday. After Phil was summoned from his burrow at Gobbler's Knob in Pennsylvania, observers proclaimed that "the prognosticator of all prognosticators" had seen his shadow. "Many shadows do I see, six more weeks of winter it must be," a member of Phil's "Inner Circle" said as the crowd erupted in boos. The celebration derives from a superstition that if the animal comes out of hibernation and sees his shadow, there will be another six weeks of winter. If he does not, the belief is spring will come early. Much of the United States has seen an unseasonably warm winter, so Phil's prediction may come as a surprise to some. How much stock would you put in this year's prognostication? Here's what Phil indicated in the last few years, according to Groundhog.org: 2011: "No shadow, spring is near!" 2010: "Phil saw his shadow and told his prediction to new Inner Circle President Bill Deeley." 2009: "Phil saw his shadow and Inner Circle President Bill Cooper completed his final interpretation and retired at Gobblers Knob. It was 7:26 a.m." 2008: "It was 29 degrees. In front of one of the largest crowds ever at Gobblers." … [Read more...]

Obama defends drone strikes

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(By Chris Kaufman, AP) (Phatforums News / USA Today) --- President Obama is defending his use of unmanned drone attacks in Pakistan and elsewhere, saying they have been used to kill more terrorists than civilians. "I want to make sure that people understand actually drones have not caused a huge number of civilian casualties," Obama said during a forum with YouTube and Google-plus. "For the most part, they have been very precise, precision strikes against al Qaeda and their affiliates. And we are very careful in terms of how it's been applied." In his most extended public comments on drones, Obama disputed the "perception" that "we're just sending in a whole bunch of strikes willy-nilly." "This is a targeted, focused effort at people who are on a list of active terrorists, who are trying to go in and harm Americans, hit American facilities, American bases and so on," Obama said. Obama added: "It is important for everybody to understand that this thing is kept on a very tight leash. It's not a bunch of folks in a room somewhere just making decisions. And it is also part and parcel of our overall authority when it comes to battling al Qaeda. It is not something that's being used beyond that." The president also disputed news reports about drone activity in Iraq, saying they have been "a little overwritten." "The truth of the matter is we're not engaging in a bunch of drone attacks inside of Iraq," Obama said. "There's some surveillance to make sure that our embassy compound is protected." A questioner at the YouTube/Google forum persisted, wondering about the use of drones and national sovereignty. Said Obama: Well, you know, I think that we have to be judicious in how we use drones. But understand that probably our ability to respect the sovereignty of other countries and to limit our incursions into somebody else's territory is enhanced by the fact that we are able to pinpoint strike on al Qaeda operative in a place where the capacities of that military in that country may not be able to get them. So, obviously, a lot of these strikes have been in the Fattah and going after al Qaeda suspects, who are up in very tough terrain along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. For us to be able to get them in another way would involve probably a lot more intrusive military actions than the one that we're already engaging in. That doesn't mean that we shouldn't be careful about how we proceed on this. And you know, obviously, I'm looking forward to a time where al Qaeda is no longer operative network and, you know, we can refocus a lot of our assets and attention on other issues. But this is something that we're still having to deal with, there's still active plots that are directed against the United States, and I think we are on the offense now. Al Qaeda's been really weakened, but we've still got a little more work to do, and we've got to make sure that we're using all our capacities … [Read more...]

Obama has had rare run of luck with elite SEAL operations

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(Phatforums News / USA Today) --- WASHINGTON – President Obama has forged a special connection with the elite Navy SEALs unit responsible for some of the most prominent military operations of his presidency. He met with the SEALs who killed Osama bin Laden last May, and the man who oversaw the operation, Adm. William McRaven, was a guest of first lady Michelle Obama at the State of the Union Address on Tuesday. The president hosted the cargo ship captain Richard Phillips, the Vermont man who was rescued by the SEALs in April 2009 from Somali pirates, at the White House after his release. And just a couple of hours after he received confirmation that American Jessica Buchanan and Poul Hagen Thisted, a Dane, were rescued by SEALs from Somali pirates, Obama remarked during the State of the Union that one of his favorite possessions was an American flag the SEALs carried on the bin Laden mission. STORY: U.S. military raid in Somalia frees Dane, American BLOG: White House timeline on hostage rescue BLOG: Obama praises special operations troops for rescue "The SEALs are the elite of the elite, and it makes sense that he would latch on to them, because there's been success," says Edward Frantz, a presidential historian at the University of Indianapolis. Obama hasn't been averse to the high-risk, high-reward operations that have led to some of his greatest national security successes. He has managed to roll the dice — and has succeeded — with the types of operations that have led to some of the biggest national security debacles of past presidencies. Bill Clinton ordered Army Rangers and Delta Force troops into Mogadishu in 1993 to capture Somali warlord Mohammed Farah Aidid, an operation in which 19 U.S. soldiers were killed. Jimmy Carter ordered a failed 1980 mission to rescue U.S. hostages held in Iran; the collision of a helicopter and a transport aircraft killed eight troops and forced the operation to be abandoned. The Iran mission marked a low point in the Carter presidency. "President Obama has shown himself to be willing to take risks with special operations forces — to a degree I don't think any other president has," said Bob Killibrew, a retired Army colonel who worked in special operations in Vietnam and is now an analyst at the Center for a New American Security, a defense policy think tank. John Hall, a military historian at the University of Wisconsin, noted that special operations forces have been around since World War II, but they were initially designed to be stay-behind forces in Eastern Europe, a response to the Soviet Union. President Kennedy later championed the Army's Green Berets, ushering in an era in which the Army became more attuned to "flexible response"—a force that could not only help foment revolutions but also stabilize vulnerable allies, Hall said. After the Iran debacle, a new focus was placed on improving the military's special operators' capability to carry out surgical … [Read more...]

Analysis: A deep divide over the nation’s course ahead

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(Phatforums News / USA Today) --- TAMPA – President Obama's populist-flavored State of the Union Address on Monday night and the harsh reaction of Republican leaders to it reflect more than Washington's typical partisan divide. Their sharply divergent views about the causes of the country's problems and the solutions to them are part of the most fundamental debate in a generation or more, perhaps even since the New Deal era, over what the government can and should do at a time of economic pain. That deep disagreement isn't likely to be narrowed before November. PHOTOS: 2012 State of the Union BLOG: Highlights from the president's speech MORE: Readers weigh in on state of the U.S. The gulf between the two sides and the capital's partisan vitriol undercut the traditional role of the State of the Union — that is, as an account of the legislative priorities the president will pursue this year. Instead, with limited prospects of major legislation passing, the speech and the reaction are election-year arguments that each side hopes will persuade voters to endorse its view of the world. In his address to a joint session of Congress, Obama portrayed the Republicans as advocates of what he has called "you're-on-your-own economics," determined to protect the wealthy at the expense of everyone else. "We can either settle for a country where a shrinking number of people do really well while a growing number of Americans barely get by," Obama declared, "or we can restore an economy where everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same set of rules." Speech transcripts President Obama: State of the Union Address Indiana Gov. Daniels: GOP response Republicans accused Obama of promoting class warfare and stoking the politics of envy. "No feature of the Obama presidency has been sadder than its constant efforts to divide us, to curry favor with some Americans by castigating others," Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels said in the formal Republican response. "We Americans are all in the same boat." Earlier in the day, at an overflow rally in Sarasota, Fla., GOP presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich derided Obama as "a Saul Alinsky radical," a reference to an iconic Chicago community organizer. Mitt Romney, campaigning here in front of a banner that said "Obama isn't working," described the president as an economic naif who wants to transform the United States into "a European-style social welfare state." The task for a first-term president delivering his fourth-year State of the Union always requires striking a delicate rhetorical balance, especially at a time of travail, between bragging about achievements and acknowledging setbacks. In his 1996 address — after his party suffered historic losses in the 1994 midterms —President Clinton said "the era of big government is over," drawing more applause from Republicans than fellow Democrats. In his 2004 State of the Union, … [Read more...]

Drone kills Al Qaeda operative

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(Phatforums News / CNN) --- A senior al Qaeda operations planner was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan last week, according to a U.S. official. Aslam Awan died January 10 when a CIA-operated missile slammed into a compound near the town of Miranshah in the province of North Waziristan. The official described Awan as a key player with al Qaeda who was not known by the public but was being tracked by the intelligence community. The official said Awan was working on attacks against the West. "His death reduces al Qaeda's thinning bench of another operative devoted to plotting the death of innocent civilians," said the American official. The missile strike was one of two launched last week, marking the end of a seven-week pause in U.S. drone attacks after an incident in November when NATO forces in Afghanistan accidentally fired upon and killed 24 Pakistani troops operating in the border region. Although U.S. officials deny there was an official lull in drone operations, the relationship with Pakistan has been on a down-spin over the past year after a number of high profile incidents, including the secret raid by U.S. forces on the compound that housed Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan. … [Read more...]

Pakistan PM fires defense secretary despite army warnings

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(Phatforums News / USA Today) --- Pakistan's prime minister has fired his defense secretary for alleged "gross misconduct" amid growing tension between the civilian leadership and the military. The move came only minutes after the Pakistani army, in a statement, warned of "grievious consequences" over Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilan's charge that the country's army chief violated the constituition. The Pakistan newspaper Dawn reports that the army chief has summoned an emergency meeting of the corps commanders. The Associated Press, quoting an unidentified Pakistani official, says the prime minister sacked retired lieutenant general Neem Khalid Lodhi because of "misconduct" relating to his role in submitting statements by the army and spy chief to the Supreme Court about a scandal involving a memo sent to Washington that is rocking the country. The court's commission is probing the controversial unsigned memo that allegedly sought the help of the U.S. military in curbing the Pakistan military's power in the wake of last year's covert raid by U.S. forces that killed Osama bin Laden, AFP reports. Lohdi is an army appointee in the government, and is regarded as having more power than the defense minister because of his direct ties to the army high command. The British newspaper The Telegraph says the move by Pakistan's prime minister came as fears grow that the country's powerful military is bent on ousting the government. … [Read more...]

Supreme Court overturns New Orleans man’s murder conviction

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(Phatforums News / USA Today) --- WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that a New Orleans man's murder conviction must be reversed because prosecutors failed to reveal that the sole eyewitness to the crime had earlier said he could not identify the killer. The decision was 8-1; Justice Clarence Thomas was the lone dissent. The case brings to the fore problems of prosecutors' hiding evidence and the guarantee, stemming from a 1963 Supreme Court decision, that the government must turn over evidence favorable to a defendant. "We have observed that evidence impeaching an eyewitness may not be material if the state's other evidence is strong enough to sustain confidence in the verdict," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority. "That is not the case here." Juan Smith was charged with killing five people during a 1995 armed robbery of a New Orleans home. A single eyewitness, Larry Boatner, connected Smith to the killings. Boatner testified at trial, according to the Supreme Court's decision Tuesday, that he had been "face to face with Smith during the initial moments of the robbery." At a jury trial, Smith was convicted of five counts of murder. On appeal, Smith obtained files that showed that Boatner had told police on the night of the killings that he "could not ID anyone because (he) couldn't see faces." Prosecutors had not turned over a detective's report of that information to Smith before trial. In assessing whether that information should have been revealed, Roberts noted that a 1963 case, Brady v. Maryland, demands that a state turn over evidence that would be favorable to the defendant and "material" to his guilt or punishment. He said Boatner's comments met that test. "Boatner's testimony was the only evidence linking Smith to the crime. And Boatner's undisclosed statements directly contradict his testimony," Roberts wrote. His opinion for the court majority in Smith v. Cain was a remarkably short four pages. Thomas, dissenting from the ruling, elaborated for 19 pages on why he thought Smith's conviction should not be reversed. Thomas said Boatner's earlier statement of doubt about the killer did not undermine Boatner's confidence in his identification of Smith at trial. "Much of the record evidence confirms that, from the night of the murders through trial, Boatner consistently described — with one understandable exception — the first perpetrator through the door, that Boatner's description matched Smith," Thomas wrote. … [Read more...]